The Trudeau government discussed using tanks to quell peaceful protests by the Freedom Convoy

A public inquiry into Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s declaration of martial law in February has revealed that Liberal ministers discussed the possibility of using war machines against peaceful protesters who have gathered in the country’s capital to protest medical tyranny and vaccination requirements.

what are the details

That Emergency Public Order Commissionestablished April 25, is currently conducting an inquiry to determine whether the Trudeau government’s use of wartime measures to quell trucker-led “Freedom Convoy” protests was justified.

Politically reported that the federal government has partially relinquished Cabinet confidence for the purposes of the investigation, giving Canadians a glimpse into the state’s machinations and the thinking behind Trudeau’s unprecedented application of the Emergency Act on February 14.

Select Cabinet ministers and federal officials were questioned on Wednesday, including Liberal Attorney General David Lametti.

tinsel allegedly wrote to Liberal Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino on February 2: “You have to get the police to move [Canadian Armed Forces] if necessary. Too many people are seriously affected by what a profession is.”

Mendicino replied, “How many tanks are you asking for? i just want to ask [Defense Minister] anita [Anand] How many do we have on hand?”

Lametti replied, “I think one is enough!”

Canada’s tank of choice is the German-made Leopard 2, designed to combat Russian heavy tanks in combat. reported the state post office.

Its Rheinmetall-made 120-millimeter, 44-caliber main gun may have been too much for the thousands of unarmed citizens protesting vaccination regulations and COVID restrictions, one of the authors of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms said to be unconstitutional.

Lametti claimed the exchange was “intended as a joke between two friends,” but when Trudeau declared martial law, he felt it was necessary clear up that his government “is not using the emergency law to call in the military.”

Former Ottawa Police Chief’s attorney Peter Sloly suggested this was more than just a joking banter. saying“You can understand how, when something like this is made public, that … Canadians, through the media, take the words as the weight of your office.”

The National Post reported that the use of heavy armor to quell a protest unfavorable to the incumbent political leader would have been unprecedented in Canada.

In the 1919 general strike in Winnipeg, protesters were crushed with gunfire and Calvary attacks, but not heavy armor.

kidding aside

The liberal justice minister not only joked about the use of weapons of war against Canadian citizens, which he disagreed with, but noted that the police have “all the legal powers they need[ed] to enforce the law”, but had failed to do so.

Lametti went so far as to call former police chief Peter Sloly “incompetent” for his measured use of the law.

On Friday, Trudeau testifies that the provincial and local police’s ability to “keep it under control wasn’t exactly there”.

Although street crime actually liked Nonetheless, while protesters exercised their mobility and speaking rights in downtown Ottawa, the Trudeau administration suggested that the abstract threat of violence, along with other so-called factors, was sufficient to seize protesters’ funds. Freeze bank accountsTowing vehicles and arresting protesters.

The Toronto Star reported that the Trudeau administration retrospectively cited “the volatile and potentially violent situations that were occurring in various places at the time” as the reason for invoking the emergency powers.

A internal report of the Ministry of Public Security confirmed, however, that there was no evidence of violence by Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa; that “most events passed peacefully”; and that the “disruption in government activities so far has been minor”.

Trudeau’s government also defended the action, arguing that Canada’s “social cohesion, national unity and … international reputation” was facing “irreparable damage” as a result of the protests.

While the Freedom Convoy allegedly posed a threat to Canada’s international reputation, Trudeau’s invocation of wartime measures drew the ire of the Canadian government, not only from Conservative Party members but also from civil rights organizations and foreign dignitaries around the world.

Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes compared Trudeau to the communist dictator Ceausescu, suggesting: “He’s just like a tyrant, like a dictator.”

Croatian MEP Mislav Kolakusic addressed Trudeau and said: “Canada, once a symbol of the modern world, has become a symbol of civil rights abuse under your quasi-liberal boot in recent months. We’ve watched you trample women with horses, how you shut down the bank accounts of single parents so they can’t even pay for their children’s education and medicine, they can’t pay utilities…”

German MEP Christine Anderson criticized Prime Minister for “trespassing on fundamental rights by persecuting and criminalizing his own citizens as terrorists simply because they dared to oppose his own perverse understanding of democracy”.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) said that Trudeau’s imposition of martial law to end the protests was “very, very dangerous” suggest that overnight “Canada became Egypt…governed by an emergency decree allowing the banning of public gatherings, travel, and the seizure of private businesses without your day in court.”

No “usual political protest”

Trudeau told the commission through his testimony that the Freedom Convoy was not a “typical political protest.”

Trudeau had not intervened in previous political protests — like those by BLM or Idle No More activists — and had not taken similar action in 2020 when anti-pipeline activists blocked Canadian rail lines. paralyzing the country.

According to the Prime MinisterWhat allegedly made the Freedom Convoy unusual was that the protesters expressed a “certain level of frustration” that was “very concerning”. Worse, they allegedly harassed people for wearing masks.

Months before Trudeau used state power to eliminate critics of state power, he made his views known about those opposed to his COVID-19 policies. On September 16, 2021, Trudeau said on the French-language show La semaine des 4 Julie that those who are “vehemently anti-vaccination… are extremists.”

Trudeau added that they “don’t believe in science, they’re often misogynists, often racists too,” and then asked, “Do we tolerate these people?”

It seems that armored war machines quickly came to mind as sections of Trudeau’s government considered what to do with the people the Prime Minister branded extremists and whose toleration was questioned.